From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia.
A health or medical library
is a
library designed to assist
health care professionals,
students, patients, consumers, and
researchers in finding health and
science information that will
increase, improve, or evaluate
health care. These libraries are
found in
hospitals,
medical schools, private
industry, and health associations.
A typical health or medical
library has access to
MEDLINE, a substantial
journal collection, and
reference books.
Every American and Canadian
college of
medicine,
nursing,
dentistry,
veterinary medicine or
public health is required to
have a health or medical library
that meets certain minimum
specifications with respect to
quantity and quality of materials
available. A few academic medical
libraries are kept in the same
building as the general library,
but most are housed in close
proximity to the medical college.
The
United States National Library of
Medicine (NLM) supports and
advocates health information. It
provides a number of medical and
genomic databases, including
MEDLINE and
OMIM (a genetic traits
database). In support of Open
Access to the journal literature,
NLM offers
PubMed Central. NLM works with
the National Network of Libraries
of Medicine (NN/LM)
to provide regional medical
library support. NLN's consumer
health service,
MEDLINEplus, offers text,
images and interactive tutorials.
Associations
The
Medical Library Association
(MLA) serves as an advocate for
the profession and for all health
sciences libraries. MLA maintains
an online list of
ALA-accredited
library school programs for
those who would like to pursue a
master's degree in library and
information studies (MLIS).
The
Special Libraries Association
has a Medical Section of the
Biomedical and Life Science
Division, which serves as a
forum for Division members who are
engaged or interested in the
exchange of information in the
biomedical and health sciences,
and the acquisition, organization,
dissemination, and use of such
information in all formats.
In Australia, health librarians
and libraries are represented by
the
Health Libraries Australia Group
of the Australian Library and
Information Association. A
list of health libraries in
Australia may by found on the
website of the
National Library of Australia.
The International Federation of
Library Associations and
Institutions (IFLA)
has a
Health and Biosciences Libraries
Section. The
International Congress on Medical
Librarianship is meeting in
Brazil in 2005, in association
with
BIREME &
PAHO.
